The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has appointed Johnathon Huff as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). The COO is responsible for the business functions of Jefferson Lab, including business and finance, health and safety, human resources, procurement, facilities management, communications, legal and performance assurance. Huff will take on the responsibilities of this role in mid-June.
Tag: Department of Energy (DOE)
New method for enabling a more reliable electric grid
Case Western Reserve University chemical engineers are working on a new generation of smaller, safer and less expensive batteries they say could allow electrical energy to be stored four times longer.
Science snapshots from Berkeley Lab
New Berkeley Lab breakthroughs: engineering chemical-producing microbes; watching enzyme reactions in real time; capturing the first image of ‘electron ice’; revealing how skyrmions really move
How to catch a perfect wave: Scientists take a closer look inside the perfect fluid
Scientists have reported new clues to solving a cosmic conundrum: How the quark-gluon plasma – nature’s perfect fluid – evolved into the building blocks of matter during the birth of the early universe.
LED Material Shines Under Strain
A team led by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley has demonstrated an approach for achieving LEDs with near 100% light-emission efficiency at all brightness levels.
PPPL Physicist Erik Gilson joins Secretary of Energy in panel discussion on DOE internships
PPPL physicist Erik Gilson, a long-time Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship mentor, joins U.S. Secretary of Energy Jannifer Grandholm and other mentors and former interns on a panel discussion about the U.S. Department of Energy’s internship programs
Main Attraction: Scientists Create World’s Thinnest Magnet
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have created an ultrathin magnet that operates at room temperature. The ultrathin magnet could lead to new applications in computing and electronics – such as spintronic memory devices – and new tools for the study of quantum physics.
UAlbany Atmospheric Scientists Lead DOE Project to Enhance Offshore Wind Research Buoys
The collaborative project aims to design, install and deploy a buoy-based flux measurement system that can provide new insight on offshore wind conditions and improve forecast models.

New enzyme breaks down waste for less expensive biofuels, bioproducts
In a step toward increasing the cost-effectiveness of renewable biofuels and bioproducts, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered a microbial enzyme that degrades tough-to-break bonds in lignin, a waste product of biorefineries.
This crystal impurity is sheer perfection
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have developed a nanoparticle composite that grows into 3D crystals. The new 3D-grown material could speed up production and eliminate errors in the mass manufacturing of nanoscale photonics for smart buildings or actuators for robotics.
Key to Carbon-Free Cars? Look to the Stars
In a decade-long quest, scientists at Berkeley Lab, the University of Hawaii, and Florida International University uncover new clues to the origins of the universe – and land new chemistry for cleaner combustion engines
Are Heavy Metals Toxic? Scientists Find Surprising New Clues in Yeast
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have compiled the most complete library yet of lanthanide heavy metals and their potential toxicity – by exposing baker’s yeast to lanthanides. Their findings could help researchers uncover hidden pathways between lanthanide metals and disease.
Wayne State physics professor awarded DOE Early Career Research Program grant
Chun Shen, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics and astronomy in Wayne State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was awarded a five-year, $750,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program for his project, “Quantitative Characterization of Emerging Quark-Gluon Plasma Properties with Dynamical Fluctuations and Small Systems.”
DOE Benchmark Study Seeks Input on Future of International Scientific Research at 239th ECS Meeting
A special livestream event at the 239th ECS Meeting with IMCS18 features representatives of a subcommittee of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee (BESAC) reporting on research and requesting input on the future of international scientific research. “Benchmarking Innovation: The Future of International Scientific Research” takes place on June 1, from 1400-1500h EDT, after which the content will be available through June 26, 2021.
ORNL’s superb materials expertise, data and AI tools propel progress
At the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists use artificial intelligence, or AI, to accelerate the discovery and development of materials for energy and information technologies.

This hydrogen fuel machine could be the ultimate guide to self improvement
Scientists at Berkeley have uncovered an extraordinary self-improving property that transforms an ordinary semiconductor into a highly efficient and stable artificial photosynthesis device

April Snapshots
Science Snapshots from Berkeley Lab: X-rays accelerate battery R&D; infrared microscopy goes off grid; substrates support 2D tech

Science Snapshots From Berkeley Lab – Week of March 29, 2021
India’s Ambitious Clean Energy Goals, a Secret Pathway to Harnessing the Sun for Clean Energy, and a Supersmart Gas Sensor for Asthmatics

Science Snapshots: COVID-19, power outages, Alzheimer’s disease, and optical antennas
March Science Snapshots from Berkeley Lab

Supercomputers Help Advance Computational Chemistry
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have succeeded in developing an artificial intelligence (AI) approach to detect electron correlation – the interaction between a system’s electrons – which is vital but expensive to calculate in quantum chemistry.

Shine On: Avalanching Nanoparticles Break Barriers to Imaging Cells in Real Time
A team of researchers co-led by Berkeley Lab and Columbia University has developed a new material called avalanching nanoparticles that, when used as a microscopic probe, offers a simpler approach to taking high-resolution, real-time snapshots of a cell’s inner workings at the nanoscale.

Scientists Recruit New Atomic Heavyweights in Targeted Fight Against Cancer
Researchers from Berkeley Lab and Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed new methods for the large-scale production, purification, and use of the radioisotope cerium-134, which could serve as a PET imaging radiotracer for a highly targeted cancer treatment known as alpha-particle therapy.

Charges Cascading Along a Molecular Chain
Removing one charged molecule from a one-dimensional array causes the others to alternately turn ‘on’ or ‘off,’ paving the way for information transfer in tiny circuits

What’s Nanotechnology? Kristin Persson Explains at 4 Different Levels
In celebration of National Nanotechnology Day, Molecular Foundry Director Kristin Persson explains atomic-scale engineering at four different levels – for a kindergartner, a middle schooler, a high school senior, and a graduate student

Jennifer Doudna Wins 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Biochemist Jennifer Doudna, a professor at UC Berkeley and faculty scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), is co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the development of a method for genome editing.”

Machine Learning Helps Plasma Physics Researchers Understand Turbulence Transport
UC San Diego researchers published a study that used the ‘Comet’ supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center on campus showing how machine learning produced a model for plasma turbulence.

Toward an Ultrahigh Energy Density Capacitor
Researchers at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have demonstrated that a common material can be processed into a top-performing energy storage material. Their discovery could improve the efficiency, reliability, and robustness of personal electronics, wearable technologies, and car audio systems.

Berkeley Lab Part of Multi-Institutional Team Awarded $60M for Solar Fuels Research
The Department of Energy has awarded $60 million to a new solar fuels initiative – called the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) – led by Caltech in close partnership with Berkeley Lab. LiSA will build on the foundational work of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP).

Battery Breakthrough Gives Boost to Electric Flight and Long-Range Electric Cars
Researchers at Berkeley Lab, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, have developed a new battery material that could enable long-range electric vehicles that can drive for hundreds of miles on a single charge, and electric planes called eVTOLs for fast, environmentally friendly commutes.
Scientists Dive Deep Into Hidden World of Quantum States
A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a technique that could lead to new electronic materials that surpass the limitations imposed by Moore’s Law.

Process for ‘two-faced’ nanomaterials may aid energy, information tech
A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory implanted atoms precisely into the top layers of ultra-thin crystals, yielding two-sided Janus structures that may prove useful in developing energy and information technologies.

Jefferson Lab Graduate Student Researchers Receive DOE Awards
Three graduate students have gotten a financial boost from DOE to conduct research at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The students have received supplemental research awards from the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program.

Scientists Aim Gene-Targeting Breakthrough Against COVID-19
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and Stanford have joined forces to aim a gene-targeting, antiviral agent called PAC-MAN against COVID-19.

Science Snapshots from Berkeley Lab: 3D nanoparticles and magnetic spin
Researchers at Berkeley Lab have captured 3D images of nanoparticles in liquid with atomic precision, and developed an ultrathin electrical switch that could further miniaturize computing devices and personal electronics without loss of performance.
A Talented 2D Material Gets a New Gig
Berkeley Lab scientists tap into graphene’s hidden talent as an electrically tunable superconductor, insulator, and magnetic device for the advancement of quantum information science

How JCAP Is Making Solar Fuels Shine
As we look back at a decade of discovery, we highlight 10 achievements by scientists at Berkeley Lab and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis that bring us closer to a solar fuels future.

Scientists Discover New Clue Behind Age-Related Diseases and Food Spoilage
Berkeley Lab scientists have made a surprising discovery that could help explain our risk for developing chronic diseases or cancers as we get older, and how our food decomposes over time.

ORNL, TVA sign agreement to collaborate on advanced reactor technologies
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate a new generation of flexible, cost-effective advanced nuclear reactors.

Top Posts of 2019
From nanoparticles to algae ecology, the Office of Science supported a variety of research in 2019.

Science Snapshots From Berkeley Lab
This edition of Science Snapshots highlights the discovery of an investigational cancer drug that targets tumors caused by mutations in the KRAS gene, the development of a new library of artificial proteins that could accelerate the design of new materials, and new insight into the natural toughening mechanism behind adult tooth enamel.

A day in the life of a telescope camera assembler
The LSST camera is the biggest digital camera ever constructed for ground-based astronomy. Within the year, Hannah and her teammates will finish assembling and testing the camera and it will be shipped to its home at the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile.

Tiny Quantum Sensors Watch Materials Transform Under Pressure
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a diamond anvil sensor that could lead to a new generation of smart, designer materials, as well as the synthesis of new chemical compounds, atomically fine-tuned by pressure.

University of Kentucky Grant Seeks to Turn Coal Into Carbon Fiber
UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) has received a $1.8 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to transform coal tar pitch into high-value carbon fiber for use in aircraft, automobiles, sporting goods and other high-performance materials.

Six Berkeley Lab Scientists Named AAAS Fellows
Six scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The Beauty of Imperfections: Linking Atomic Defects to 2D Materials’ Electronic Properties
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have revealed how atomic defects emerge in transition metal dichalcogenides, and how those defects shape the 2D material’s electronic properties. Their findings could provide a versatile yet targeted platform for designing 2D materials for quantum information science.

Brookhaven–Commonwealth Fusion Energy Project Wins DOE Funding
Brookhaven’s Superconducting Magnet Division will partner with industry to develop and characterize superconducting power cables.

Go With the Flow: Scientists Design New Grid Batteries for Renewable Energy
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have designed an affordable ‘flow battery’ membrane that could accelerate renewable energy for the electrical grid.